Roy

@Eph75 That was a tremendously helpful post. Thank you.

He didn't specify that they had to be in Las Vegas, Leo looking for a long distance relationship lol?

Perhaps you have poor self-esteem you haven't identified yet, and gravitate towards narcissists because they have an aura of self-esteem about themselves (even if false). You want what they have so you subconsciously go towards it.

I mean as long as everything is consensual and you weren't manipulating/taking advantage of any of them, nothing "wrong" with that. But honestly that's just really risky behavior otherwise, don't think I'd ever want to attempt that. I'll willingly go to the grave without trying to break triple digits. The chances of an unwanted pregnancy or getting an STI, or god forbid HIV are just way too high, no matter how safe you are stuff always happens. You are treading in some dangerous (and filthy) waters my friend haha!

One of the benefits of online/social media dating is that it's such a low investment of energy and resources that inevitably you WILL get better at texting, it's just a matter of practice. You don't need to close on a date on every single interaction you have, you're just going to leave yourself disappointed and feeling rejected. You need to have an abundance mindset here, it's critical. Don't be too selective, you need to be willing to talk with lots of girls because you won't really have any sense of who they are as if you approached in person and you can tell right away if you are into them or not. Personally I'm chatting up like 8 women at the moment, and have secured dates with 4 of them. Sometimes plans fall through or stuff comes up so don't get too worried or take it personally, just have other options available. Here are some tips; - You don't want to be texting them non-stop, that communicates you're too available and desperate (even if you aren't, people make harsh assumptions) - Only shoot a message here there, maybe once a day. Or every other day. - Pepper constant questions in so you keep the conversation going and have things to branch off of. You want to answer things but don't explain with walls of texts. You want to leave an air of mystery so they are curious about you. - DO NOT text forever or weeks at a time before going on a date. You should be asking and securing a date within 5-15 messages AT MOST! You need to communicate you're serious about going on a date and have options and are busy enough that you don't fuck around wasting time. - If you're texting too much before going on a date you'll build an emotional connection and expectations in your head, then if they say no you get all whiny and discouraged like you are here. It's a very fast paced dating world, you need to treat it as such and stop caring so much. Your life was fine before you started talking to them and it will be fine after. As for profile. Yes you need to invest in making it the best you can, would you swipe right on your profile? Make yourself stick out, get some good photos. If you have none, fucking make some! $500 is a little nuts like Leo is suggesting. That's a tad expensive for something like this. Maybe just find some media savy friend to help you. Go out and take pictures with your friends! Showcase yourself doing your hobbies! Remember you are placing yourself on the social marketplace here, you need to sell yourself. If you half ass it and don't get results, don't wonder why.

Ego is important in so far as you need to develop it (and have a healthy relationship with it) so you can engage in survival in as conscious a way as possible. Other than that, no.

Learning how to be comfortable being alone is one of the most important things in life, as you are the only person you'll always be with no matter what is going on. Wherever you go, there you are. As they say. As depressing as it might sound you will always be alone in a sense because despite how close it's possible to get with another person you will never truly be inside their mind or spirit, you are always in yours just interpreting. Generally to make the best of it you could be doing things that feed your soul and make you happy. Whatever that happens to be. Find out what those things are and just do them, don't let your own thoughts of others judgements or social norms dictate or hamper what those things are. If they are considered "weird" or something you shouldn't do alone. So what! There is a lot of work to be done on the ego all the time, but if there is ever a time to embrace selfishness it's when you are alone. Instead of feeling fearful or lacking, take it as an opportunity to recharge so you can go back into the world feeling energized and healthy. I'm not sure I've encountered this a lot. When I have I am usually pretty good at being empathetic and raising them up by showing them why they don't have to fear something. It takes a certain degree of patience and the right context. You won't be able to do any convincing in a quick conversation and setting.

I've got all his books but only 100 pages into Sapiens atm. Listened to a handful of podcasts and interviews so far as well. He explains things in a very impartial but also very clear way. There aren't as many comparable historians that do a good a job as him without pushing some agenda.

People who are opposed to racial quotas, diversity standards, and representation are at worst bigoted, and at best just stuck on a Stage Orange obsession with efficiency and productivity. Picking the 3rd or 5th best candidate for a job because of the unique perspective and image they bring might be an net positive even if they aren't technically the most qualified. Doesn't mean they still can't do a great job, it just might not be perfect. It's a trade off, like everything else. It could be a more overall benefit to society to have it's different groups broadly represented in businesses, organizations, and the community, at the sacrifice of some financial surplus. It's becoming increasingly more important in a world that's getting connected and as cultures and races mix deeper. We simply can't afford not to do it if we have any hope of sustaining the social fabric.

The reality and importance of survival becomes so amplified in prison that it would be near impossible to focus on contemplation and introspection to the degree you're imagining. Something as radical as this only sounds like a "good" idea for someone with tremendous experience and temperament for those things, but that just raises the question, why go to such an environment for time to master something you've already mastered?

The fact you're worried about this shows some insecurity and this will actually be the thing that pushes her away, so it's important to relax and stop thinking about this. Apart of what was helping give you that "vibe" and smoothness was the fact you were probably not thinking so much and were just in a flow state. Keep out of your head, and get into your body and emotions. Thinking will fuck you here, not help you. Now that you've moved past the "meeting" phase and both of your truer colours are starting to show, you're starting to become attached to the idea of being together and fear losing that, the answer to this is stop caring! You are your own complete person on your own. If she stays with you great, if she doesn't, also great! If you're going to think anything, repeat this to yourself over and over til it sticks. If she truly likes you or "loves" you as you feel she does, then she will stay and be able to tolerate a little "boring". If it's the end of the world for her that you can't keep things on fire 24/7, well that's on her for being so demanding and she's probably not a good match for you anyways.

Tinder and Bumble, you can do it from the safety of your home and it's a super low investment of just clicking some buttons on your phone. Those are the two good apps, the rest are kind of dead or have awful paywalls. I've been using them for a few weeks and already had a few dates with some great women.

I know this is probably really insensitive, but does Jesse Lee Peterson have some kind of history of brain damage or some trauma? I'm seriously asking because something doesn't seem right with him, like all the lights are on but nobody is home, you know? His eyes are just hollow and the way he talks it just seems like there is a linear script running his brain like he's a propaganda bot lmao. What's most confusing to me is, is his audience unironically following him as some sort of meta-play of support for conservatism?

What do you guys make of this? https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-06-08/collapse-of-civilisation-is-the-most-likely-outcome-top-climate-scientists/ Personally in spite of the pragmatic realist chatterbox I have going on in my mind all the time, I try to stay generally (and sometimes hopelessly) optimistic about the world and the future of it. However considering all the things I've learned and observed so far, and the ongoing/oncoming problems scientists are pointing to - I'm finding it difficult to maintain that resolve. So in naïve hope of some relief I'm curious, what's the game plan for you guys personally? Heed the warnings and desperately try to fix everything? Concede that we are doomed and just live out as selfish a life as long as possible? Accept things as they are stoically and carry on? I've had a handful of existential panic attacks about this, and having calmed down from those my contemplations have basically led me to decide I'm very likely going to forgo the traditional life expected from my society and family. My awareness has gotten to a point where I can't consciously participate in the system that's degrading our world and maintain reasonable sanity. Therefore I'll have to minimize my activity within it as much as possible; I'm probably not going to have any children (though considering adoption), I don't care for getting married or buying a large house, I don't care for having a lifetime career and spending most my waking life accumulating a bunch of resources and material possessions. I essentially want to reduce my survival needs and make enough to live in a tiny eco home or boat, consume as little as possible, recycle and conserve my local environment, and volunteer to spread love and consciousness in whatever avenues available. Doing your best despite the dire circumstances. and accepting them as they come and as they are seems to be the only option.

What's great is that no matter who the nominee is for the Republican party.... they are hilariously fucked in the future lol! Either they will pale in comparison to Trump's antics and be so boring as they won't be able muster the same loyal base that he has... Or they are an even wackier flavour of crazy and there is no chance in hell they win! The age of Trump has changed the landscape forever that's for sure.

There isn't, most peoples way of "calming" things is needlessly antagonistic and actually reactionary. They are ignorant to the fact we're going through a painful growing process collectively as a society from Orange into Green (generally speaking). This includes some of the ugly parts of Green like oversensitivity and sometimes misplaced wrath coming from a place of righteousness. It's all just par for the course. The best way to deal with it is simply step out of the way. Soon enough it will all be over and we'll be in a better place. This doesn't mean you have to pick the side of cancel culture and blindly participate in it either, just remove yourself emotionally and appreciate the bigger picture here. Judging by your language here you're triggered, which means your boots are on the ground when really you should be up in the air observing calmly.

Trump is remarkably uninteresting and an obvious bafoon. Can we please just forget and stop talking about the guy as he either goes to jail or escapes to some island? It's been way too many years of this nonsense, let's not stretch it out a day longer than we have to......................

There are crazies in every group no matter how niche or broad, including spirituality centered ones. At least something like this is relatively benign and just provides some good laughs, instead of blowing up school buses full of children or burning down businesses during riots.

What do you mean here, specifically.

Listen to the lyrics in this song, is TRENT REZNOR ENLIGHTENED!?!?!?!

Idk how long you've been alive, but the general rule seems to be if it tastes good it's probably not that good for you, and if it doesn't taste that good, it's probably good for you.

This is my life pretty much every day. Guess I should count my blessings being a single guy in his 20's lmao.

Maybe, but I think it's due for a large crash in the coming months and it's going to hover around 7k-13k again for a year like it did for a while before. Covid is getting much worse and people are going to be hurting for a long time, worrying about the real economy, not an internet one.

I would talk to him calmly in a day or two and explain that you maybe aren't as clean as him with your things, and didn't know it would upset him so much, and that you weren't doing it to upset him. This might make him reflect on his behavior and realize how absurd and over-reactionary it is. As for moving out. I wouldn't recommend it at the moment, make the best of your current situation and if that means tip toeing a bit more then that might be the price to pay. With Covid getting worse, now is exact time to hunker down and save/make as much money as you possibly can. Living sparsely should be easier because it's not that safe to go out doing stuff (aka spending money). Not to mention finding good deals/places rooms and housing at the moment is probably really difficult. Keep looking for better paying/more stable employment, and use your extra time to do the inner work and strategically plan for the future. It will be many months or up to a year until the world blossoms open again. Prepare and look forward to that as you build right now. Things are gonna alright @Arcangelo. I've been in a similar situation as well.

From spending a regrettable amount of time on various online forums, I can say that the situation is much more stark than we're willing to accept. It's not that trolls have inherent malicious intent and then come up with all these sorts of tactics and schemes to meet their ends, that's giving them way too much credit. No the reality is much darker than that sadly, the encompassing majority of people who end up spreading misinformation, disruption, confrontation, and chaos are doing it because they actually believe in the content of it and are convinced that its truth, because it supports their worldview/survival agenda act. That's why it's so easy for them and why they are so resistant and unlikely to change their behavior despite every indication from social feedback they should do so, it's actually a way of life, and to preserve that life (identity). Any moderately self aware person wouldn't be able to keep up such an act, its extremely exhausting and doing it consistently and with such rigor is reserved to only clinical narcissists and psychopaths which make up a small portion of society. We call them trolls because it's easier to dismiss the behavior as mischievous teenage play than accept the reality that people really do believe what they say, lest the stupidity and insanity of it dampen our spirit. Of course belief is delusion, as you know. I don't even think its particularly a right wing problem as its consistent everywhere you look, it just sticks out more to be rediculed coming from their side of the isle because their value systems are much more obviously selfish. A sad note I might add that I've realized recently as well is that selfishness and desire to feel righteous permeates much more people than you would think. Bad faith approaches/intent whether happening consciously or not happen way too often even from the people you might expect it least. It's very subtle too, you really have to be careful about spotting people's agendas, and of course you cant point at it too rashly as they will hide it, it's a tricky game of cat and mouse. The ego is a mastermind after all, and a master of the mind. Just think about how many times you've seen someone say "I never thought about it that way" or "I was wrong, you've changed my mind." The rarity of it being able to be counted on just your fingers should tell you just how dire the situation is.